Entries tagged with: 254

London rock duo 2:54 and Glasgow indie pop duo Honeyblood have announced a a 2015 tour together in support of their 2014 albums, The Other I and Honeyblood, respectively. The tour brings the two bands to NYC on February 27 at Rough Trade. Tickets for that show go on sale at noon on Friday (12/12).

The annual CMJ Music Marathon happens from October 21 - 25 at venues all over NYC. We've heard about a few bands who are heading here during that time (Slowdive, The Wytches, The Ocean Blue, Tom Vek and Courtney Barnett to name four) but CMJ threw an announcement party tonight (8/27) at Bowery Electric and the line-up is now out. In addition to those artists, The Kills, Bombay Bicycle Club, Protomartyr, Twin Peaks, White Fence, Shonen Knife OBN IIIs, Ultimate Painting, Yumi Zouma, and many more are amongst the 2014 CMJ performers. Badges are on sale now and the complete initial line-up is listed below...

The Fly is the "UK's most popular new music magazine," but if you haven't heard of it, its because it's a free monthly that doesn't really get international distribution. You can however read it online. The mag just released it's year-end issue and topping their Best Albums of 2012 is Sharon Van Etten's Tramp (which was just released in a Deluxe edition, a fine Xmas gift don't you know). Sharon narrowly beat out Grimes, whose Visions came in at #2. The whole list, in ascending order, is below and you can read what The Fly said about each album here.

It's on that final leg where The xx will return to NYC for shows at The Paradise Theater on October 26 and 28 (tickets), and while 2:54 won't support on those dates, they'll play their own NYC shows around the same time: October 24 at Knitting Factory and October 25 at Mercury Lounge. Tickets for the Knit show are on sale now and tickets for the Merc show go on sale Friday, August 31 at noon with an AmEx presale starting Wednesday (8/29) at noon.

2:54 recently made a video for their song, "Sugar." You can check that out, along with a list of all dates, below.

Spanish Prisoners' most recent album, Gold Fools, is only about eight months old but the Brooklyn band have a new cassette-only release, Prior Art, which will be out June 26 and "contains reworkings of songs by Clams Casino and Twin Sister, as well as remixes by shape shifters Sun Glitters and Rimar, mixed with gooey ambient stretches and swirling electronic interludes."

The Spanish Prisoners remix of Twin Sister's "Kimi in a Rice Field" -- which you can download at the top of this post -- gives the song a distinct '80s R&B thump while keeping Andrea Estella's vocals floating atop.

Spanish Prisoners have a couple notable shows coming up. They play Bowery Ballroom on Friday (6/1) opening for Freelance Whales (sold out), and will then play Knitting Factory on June 9 with 2:54 and Widowspeak (tickets are still available). The band has a few more additional dates as well and they're all listed below along with the cover art and tracklist to Prior Art.

The most memorable thing that happened the year I visited Toronto for NXNE was Iggy Pop & The Stooges playing their big, outdoor, free, no-ticket-or-badge-required show downtown at Yonge-Dundas Square. Last year the Descendents did it. This year they've landed the Flaming Lips which should be an amazing spectacle. And:

Dirty Beaches will begin their tour with Xiu Xiu in a couple weeks which hits Bowery Ballroom on May 5. (All Xiu Xiu/Dirty Beaches dates are below.) The two will also share a Record Store Day 7", with Xiu Xiu covering Erasure's "Always" on one side and Dirty Beaches taking on Francois Hardy's "Tu Ne Dis Rien" on the flip. You can stream both sides of that RSD release at the bottom of this post.

2:54 have announced a full tour with Widowspeak that includes the previously mentioned Mercury Lounge show (tickets) and adds a Brooklyn show happening two day earlier at Knitting Factory (tickets). All dates are listed below.

Also below you can listen to a Wild Beasts reworking of 2:54 song "You're Early" which is also the B-side to the song's single which is out next week. More than just a remix, the track features vocals by Wild Beasts frontman Hayden Thorpe, in addition to those by 2:54 singer Colette Thurlow. Check that out, along with the new video for the original version of the song, and all tour dates, below...

UK band 2:54, who were just in the US for two NYC shows and SXSW where they played the official BrooklynVegan showcase, are about to kick off a tour on their home continent, but they'll be returning to our side of the Atlantic this June. So far, only a few North American shows have been announced, and one of those is a NYC show which happens on June 11 at Mercury Lounge. Tickets are on AmEx presale now and go on sale to the general public on Friday (3/30) at noon. No opener for this show has been announced yet butWidowspeak is listed as an opener for some of the other US shows and is opening at Mercury Lounge too.

All currently known dates and a video (and UPDATE: a NEW video too), below...

NJ/Brooklyn's Caged Animals were great and had a decent crowd for being a relatively unknown band playing as doors opened to the six hour, mostly-badges-only show. Bill Pearis, who got to Austin right before this gig, wrote:

"You can sit for the first two songs, but then lets get up and dance" said Vincent Cacchione of Caged Animals who opened the set. He played affable host, running into the crowd and dancing (and hugging people). Nice mellow start to my week.

2:54, who had just come from being in NYC, followed, and clearly the recently signed to Fat Possum band has some serious buzz behind them because the room, which was actually an outdoor, astro-turfed backyard under a tent, filled up nicely for them. Many in the crowd could be heard talking in English accents. 2:54 call London home. Bill wrote:

After that it was 2:54 who have gotten exponentially better than when I saw them at Pianos last year, a much more confident band. I am a sucker for their dark, moody, shoegazy sound. Good set, though it was cut short a song by equipment problems.

2:54's 2011 Pianos show was, completely coinedentally, also with Caged Animals which I forgot until I looked up the link as I was writing this post.

Then Bill left to go catch some other bands, and Austin's Matador-signed The Young, who also played Hotel Vegan the next day, took the stage. Bill was definitely not alone in leaving after 2:54's set, though many were hanging around in the various nooks and crannies of this spacious venue that includes good food, and tables wrapped around an entire house-turned-into-a-bar, adjacent to the backyard stage area.

Screaming Females @ Bar 96

That said, by the end of Screaming Females, the stage area was at capacity. The NJ 3-piece band led by pint-sized powerhouse Marissa Paternoster on guitar and vocals had the place rocking out and going nuts. The talent those three posess is truly mind-blowing, especially with a few Lone Stars in your system. I am positive that every single person at Bar 96 Wednesday night, if they weren't already, left a Screaming Females fan.

"He opened with "It's Time To Party," because it was time to party. He closed things out with a song that was also about partying. In the middle he urged us to party, and Cherie Lily, acting as the Fergie of the ensemble, handed out fist bumps. Sh*t, how do you even review an Andrew W.K. set? "He came out and was Andrew W.K. He continued to be Andrew W.K. until he left."" [UpRoxx]

Mosh pits, fist pumps, and stage diving ensued for the 30+ minutes of Andrew's set. I could see Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles watching from the crowd, and I felt bad that he needed to follow that act, not to mention Screaming Females. It was only after the show that I noticed he was thinking the same thing, and I think he said something similar from stage, including a bit about feeling that way every night on tour with the Scremales (at this point I was completely wiped out from going for so long with almost no sleep and knowing I needed ot do it again the next morning).

Luckily for Titus, not only was there still a big crowd for their post-AWK, 1am set, they opened with a rousing cover of "The Boys are Back in Town" that got people going again. It was an awesome night.

Here are some pictures and a video of the mayhem during AWK. More below...

Welcome to Part 2 of this pre-SXSW edition of This Week in Indie (Part 1 HERE), which sees an insane amount of good show options over the next five days, even for New York which is never lacking for music options. Let's jump in, shall we?

London's Charli XCX got a lot of attention last year for her singles "Stay Away" and "Nuclear Seasons" both of which mined '80s New Romantic synthpop. (You can watch the videos for both below.) She's currently recording her debut album, working with bigshot producers Patrik Berger (The Good Natured, Robyn) and Ariel Rechtshaid (Glasser, Theopolis London) while still attending London's Slade School of Fine Art (she's only 19). For those who wished Lykke Li's second album had more to dance to, Charli XCX may be your new favorite.

Clock Opera

Clock Opera's debut album, Ways to Forget, is out April 9 on Moshi Moshi. You can watch the video for the new single "Once and Again" at the bottom of this post. There is definitely a little Coldplay in what they do, but Clock Opera also have a wide creative streak as can be heard in their fantastic, radical reworking of Metronomy's "The Bay" which is included on The English Riveria - The Unreleased Remixes.

2:54 are back in town for the first time since November, playing Glasslands on Sunday (3/11) and Mercury Lounge on Monday (3/12). When I saw them at Pianos, they were a little rough around the edges (and suffering from unintended feedback) but you could tell they had a lot of potential. (That potential is already evident on their recordings, all massive-sounding gothy shoegaze. Which is to say a lot like '90s band Curve.) Let's hope they've spent the last four months playing live and returning to mean business.

Both 2:54 shows in NYC are with London duo Big Deal whose debut came out back in January on Mute. Here's what Andrew Sacher had to say at the time:

Big Deal (aka Kacey Underwood and Alice Costelloe) will release their debut LP, Lights Out, on January 24 via Mute. They don't seem to be using more than an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar and their voices. They've got enough indie rock tendencies that it's bigger sounding than folk, but with the complete absence of drums, it's not nearly as large as their songwriting could lead it to be, and it ends up working to their advantage.

If you're not going to see Django Django, Charli XCX and Clock Opera at Santos, or 2:54 and Big Deal at Mercury Lounge, you might want to spend your Monday evening at Glasslands taking in the charming sounds of Norway's Razika who last played here in October and not enough people saw. (Including me.) I'm still listening to their debut, Program 91, which owes a little to 2-Tone Records and Lilliput/Kleenex, with a smidge of Camper Van Beethoven's balalaika ska in there too. There are a couple MP3s from Program 91 at the top of this post, do check them out, along with the video for "Vondt i hjertet" which Razika filmed here (you may recognize Pete's Candy Store) when they were over last October. Razika also play our Wednedsay day party in Austin.

Tuesday (3/13) and Wednesday (3/14) mark the first two American shows from UK trio New Build that features Al Doyle and Felix Martin from Hot Chip. The band released their debut album Yesterday Was Lived and Lost this week on their own Lanark Recordings label. You can stream it at the bottom of this post. There is a strong Roxy Music/Talking Heads vibe going on here which includes Doyle's vocals. It's slinky. It's sexy. And danceable. If you don't listen to closely to the lyrics, you'll probably like it a lot. No surprise: both these shows are sold out. Check out live footage from Glasgow at the bottom of this post, they sound pretty good.

That's the big stuff. A few more show picks, day-by-day, are below for things I haven't already covered in this post.

--METZ at Cake Shop last night (3/8)

FRIDAY, MARCH 9

As mentioned Thursday, Toronto bands METZ and Teenanger are in town and will play Death By Audio tonight with Vaz and Pop. 1280. I caught METZ and Teenanger last night at Cake shop and was duly impressed by both. METZ in particular made some kind of intense awesome racket. They are great this show is highly recommended tonight.

London duo 2:54 have signed to Fat Possum in the US, who will give their Scarlet EP an American release next week. The EP was produced by Rob Ellis, who has also done production work for PJ Harvey. It features the previously posted tracks "Scarlet" and "Got A Hold," in addition to two others. You can stream the entire EP at SPIN and download it at the Fat Possum webstore.

Fat Possum will also release their new single, "You're Early," b/w a remix of the song by Wild Beasts. "You're Early" is a bit cleaner than the material on the Scarlet EP and reminds me more of Garbage than the Melvins (who 2:54 is named after). Either way, it's still a nicely dark sounding cut and you can stream it below.

The band have a few US dates this month leading up to SXSW where they'll play the official BrooklynVegan SXSW showcase along with Screaming Females, Titus Andronicus, Caged Animals, The Young, and one more TBA. Before they get to Austin for SXSW, they'll be in NYC for two shows happening on March 11 at Glasslands (tickets) and March 12 at Mercury Lounge (tickets). Both of those shows are with fellow UK duo Big Deal who will also play a SXSW Wednesday BrooklynVegan party, but at 'Hotel Vegan'.

This March, Screaming Females, Titus Andronicus, and Diarrhea Planet are heading out on the 'Screaming on Planet Titus' tour which kicks off at The Stone Pony on March 4 in Asbury Park, NJ and ends with a Houston show on 3/12 before Screaming Females and Titus play SXSW. Tickets for the Asbury Park show are on sale now. All dates are listed below.

That Asbury Park show is the closest that the tour comes to NYC, but Screaming Females will play two more area shows in April as part of a longer, headlining tour. Those shows include Maxwell's on April 5 in Hoboken, NJ and The Bell House on April 6 in Brooklyn with Aye Nako, and Swearin'. Tickets for the Maxwell's show and the Bell House show are on sale now. Screaming Females also have a new video for "It All Means Nothing," the single off their great upcoming album, Ugly (due out April 3 via Don Giovanni). Check that video out below.

You can also catch Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles in NYC TONIGHT (2/29) at Shea Stadium with Alex Drewchin and Clapperclaw. The show is billed as "An Evening with Patrick Stickles: Songs, Stories & Spiels - An Affirmation of Manic Depression in all its Transcendent Glory."

Both 2:54 and The Young have (relatively) new MP3s. Stream those both below, and grab The Young's above.

Speaking of Diarrhea Planet, they've also got an upcoming NYC show in March at the Aputumpu Music Festival at Le Poisson Rouge on March 25 with Japanther, Cerebral Ballzy, Ghost Mice, Osekre and the Lucky Bastards, Liquor Store, and Eula. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

UK duo 2:54, who we suggested you check out when they made their US debut in NYC in late November, has a few US dates scheduled with fellow UK duo Big Deal surrounding SXSW. Those dates include March 11 at Glasslands and March 12 at Mercury Lounge, before they head to SXSW and finish up with a date together in LA. Tickets for the Mercury show go on sale today (1/13) at noon and tickets for the Glasslands show are not on sale yet but check ticketfly for updates.

Big Deal (aka Kacey Underwood and Alice Costelloe) will release their debut LP, Lights Out, on January 24 via Mute. They don't seem to be using more than an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar and their voices. They've got enough indie rock tendencies that it's bigger sounding than folk, but with the complete absence of drums, it's not nearly as large as their songwriting could lead it to be, and it ends up working to their advantage. A few of the tracks from the album are available to stream below, including the single, "Chair," and an accompanying video, "Locked Up," "Homework," and perhaps the most memorable, "Talk," which revolves around the repeated chorus of "All I wanna do is talk/but seeing you fucks me up," a refrain with the brutal honesty of emo but without its stigmas. The artwork and tracklist for Lights Out is below.

2:54 also have some upcoming dates in the UK with another UK band, The Big Pink, whose new album, Future This, comes out next week and is streaming in full with track by track commentary from the band on SPIN.

In NME's review of The Maccabees' Given to the Wild, they called the album the "first classic album of 2012" and gave it a 9/10, the highest score they've given to any album by the band thus far (their first two got 8's). The album is pretty great. It was produced by DFA's Tim Goldsworthy, and he helps bring in a more ambient feel to their sound. It doesn't have the powerful choruses of Wall of Arms but it reaches similar heights by taking a step away from that and exploring layers of new and different sounds. Check out the videos for "Feel to Follow" and "Pelican" off the album below.

Speaking of bands that NME loves, Howler (who have 7 NYC shows coming up, 5 of which are this month) are featured on the cover of NME's 'New Music 2012 Special Issue' and their debut LP, America Give Up is streaming in full on NPR.

UK band 2:54's new EP, Scarlett, sounds amazing: rolling flinty basslines, layer upon layer of guitar haze and the alluring vocals of Colette Thurlow. (Her sister Hannah provides much of the aforementioned haze.) As well it should, the record was mixed by Alan Moulder who provided polish for Ride, My Bloody Valentine and Curve (whom 2:54 most resemble) in the early '90s.

Though they didn't quite hit those stellar sonics live last night at Pianos (12/30) -- their second-ever American show and a short one at maybe six songs -- what they did have in spades is promise. Colette suffered through microphone feedback problems and there was a crackle running through the speakers on the first couple songs. 2:54 also seemed a little green, not quite jelled as a cohesive unit. But when it did -- like on "Cold Front" with its spare, skeletal arrangement -- you felt that in six months or so these Brits are gonna get there. And hopefully we'll be saying "the records are good, but you really have to see them live."

London duo 2:54, the current project of sisters Hannah and Colette Thurlow who previously played together in the punk band Vulgarians, have shared stages with Yuck, Male Bonding, and Warpaint, and even share an affinity with them for the same decade (the '90s). But while those bands are channeling the lo-fi/indie rock subgenres of the time, 2:54 are taking their influence from a much different side of the spectrum. Their name comes from the thundering 2:54 mark of the Melvins' "A History of Bad Men" and both sisters have a "life-long love of Queens Of The Stone Age".

The duo have yet to announce plans for an album, but they've got a few great songs on their soundcloud. The song "Scarlet" sounds like early-mid '90s Radiohead for about 20 seconds before the sludge-drenched guitar takes over and reverby sullen vocals kick in. Their first song to surface on the internet, "Creeping," is a locked-in stoner jam, and the guitars on "On A Wire" actually sound like they're being detuned as the song goes on. Check them out for yourself by listening to the streams of these tracks and a couple others below.